of affairs, stimulated by the unconscious influence of his surroundings.  The slender gray birches and pitch pines of that neglected pasture had never before seen a hat and coat exactly in the fashion.  They may have been abashed by the presence of a United States Senator and Western millionaire, though a piece of New England ground that had often felt the tread of his bare feet was not likely to quake because a pair of smart shoes stepped hastily along the school-house path.

III.

There was an imperative knock at the side door of the Hender farmhouse, just after dark.  The young school-mistress had come home late, because she had stopped all the way along to give people the news of her afternoon’s experience.  Marilla was not coy and speechless any longer, but sat by the kitchen stove telling her eager grandmother everything she could remember or could imagine.

“Who’s that knocking at the door?” interrupted Mrs. Hender.  “No, I’ll go myself; I’m nearest.”

The man outside was cold and foot-weary.  He was not used to spending a whole day unrecognized, and, after being first amused, and even enjoying a sense of freedom at escaping his just dues of consideration and respect, he had begun to feel as if he were old and forgotten, and was hardly sure of a friend in the world.

Old Mrs. Hender came to the door, with her eyes shining with delight, in great haste to dismiss whoever had knocked, so that she might hear the rest of Marilla’s story.  She opened the door wide to whoever might have come on some country errand, and looked the tired and faint-hearted Mr. Laneway full in the face.

“Dear heart, come in!” she exclaimed, reaching out and taking him by the shoulder, as he stood humbly on a lower step.  “Come right in, Joe.  Why, I should know you anywhere!  Why, Joe Laneway, you same boy!”

In they went to the warm, bright, country kitchen.  The delight and kindness of an old friend’s welcome and her instant sympathy seemed the loveliest thing in the world.  They sat down in two old straight-backed kitchen chairs.  They still held each other by the hand, and looked in each other’s face.  The plain old room was aglow with heat and cheerfulness; the tea-kettle was singing; a drowsy cat sat on the wood-box with her paws tucked in; and the house dog came forward in a friendly way, wagging his tail, and laid his head on their clasped hands.

“And to think I haven’t seen you since your folks moved out West, the next spring after you were thirteen in the winter,” said the good woman.  “But I s’pose there ain’t been anybody that has followed your career closer than I have, accordin’ to their opportunities.  You’ve done a great work for your country, Joe.  I’m proud of you clean through.  Sometimes folks has said, ‘There, there, Mis’ Hender, what be you goin’ to say now?’ but I’ve always told ’em to wait.  I knew you saw your reasons.  You was always an honest boy.”  The tears started and shone in her kind eyes.  Her face showed that she had waged a bitter war with poverty and sorrow, but the look of affection that it wore, and the warm touch of her hard hand, misshapen and worn with toil, touched her old friend in his inmost heart, and for a minute neither could speak.